Indicia-bearing, laminated forms are widely used by a variety of businesses and governmental entities to provide their customers or citizens with many forms of identification or other documentation. These are used as membership and identification cards, drivers licenses, parking decals, vehicle registration documentation, license tabs, and the like. Such forms typically comprise many layers of differing materials in which printed information is printed onto one or more layers. The information typically can be human or machine readable. The information can be printed on the surface or can be “buried” on one or more inner card layers. Buried information may be preferred in some instances for security purposes and/or inasmuch as overlying layer(s) protect the buried information from wear and tampering.
Business forms for making laminated identification cards on demand have been developed. Typically, these contain card portions supported on a carrier. In use, desired printing is applied to the form on demand after which the form is folded to laminate the portions together. The resultant laminated construction can then be removed. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,305,717; 5,915,733; 5,543,201; and 5,518,787; and PCT publication WO 01/02191.
Window stickers are another example of widely used business forms. In the case of motor vehicles, these may be used to document vehicle registration, vehicle authorization to access certain areas, and the like. Window stickers are also provided on the windows of residential and business buildings to convey desired information such as address information, business name information, hours of operation, notice of security protection, and the like. Window stickers can be placed on the inside or outside of windows. Interior placement is often desired to protect the sticker against degradation from the environment, from tampering, etc. Interior stickers often include adhesive on the same face that bears printed information. This face is then affixed to the inside of a window, allowing the sticker face to be viewed from the exterior.
One challenge that has limited the use of such window stickers concerns the logistics for placing not only fixed and variable information on the sticker face, but also the adhesive. Generally, it would be desirable to apply the printed information onto the face before the adhesive is applied. However, the variable information to be applied onto a sticker generally may not be known until the time of purchase, registration, or the like. One could delay placing adhesive onto a sticker face until after the variable information is applied, but conventional techniques involve spraying, brushing, masked adhesive transfer, or the like. Such techniques can involve costly hardware or user protection equipment (particularly in the case of adhesive spraying). In practice, these logistic challenges have posed serious burdens that have limited the widespread use of stickers for applications such as vehicle registration that necessitate applying variable information unique to a user or subset of users at a time of purchase, registration, leasing, or other point of transaction.
It would thus be desirable to provide an intermediate construction that may be easily formed into a window sticker without requiring the use of expensive equipment. Desirably, the sticker so formed could be formed precisely. It would further be desirable to provide such an intermediate construction that further may have provided thereon any desired indicia, fixed or variable, of any number and complexity, while yet still allowing sticker production therefrom on-demand and at a low cost. Finally, such an intermediate construction would desirably be capable of being used to produce a sticker that is substantially tamper resistant, so that the indicia printed thereupon has sufficient integrity for its intended purpose.